Last night, I got some messages from someone who I thought was my friend, someone who I thought was kind, someone who I thought I could trust. I feel the need to share these messages, to show people the damage that they can do to someone. Names will not be mentioned. I decided that this person needs to know that I am gay, so I messaged him to tell him. Once I told him, he replied.

He said, "Why be gay?"

I then said to him, "It isn't my choice."

He then proceeded to tell me that it is a choice, and asked me where I am going when I die.

I replied, "A grave."

He then said, "Then I am genuinely sorry that your mom didn't teach you correctly. If she is reading this, she should scroll up and look at the other messages."

I replied, "That is really mean. I always thought that you were a really nice person. Apparently, I was wrong. You shouldn't say things like that to people. My best friend killed herself because of messages like these, and you saying these things isn't cool with me."

He responded something absolutely horrible, he said, "I'm glad that she killed herself. That means that there is one less gay person in this world."

I replied, "I cannot believe that you just said that to me. Please don't talk to me anymore."

I then blocked him from messaging me. The moral of this story is that you have to be careful what you say to people. Words really do hurt people. I ask that everyone takes into consideration what they are going to say before they say it.